FO accused of censoring insider book on Iraq war

The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Thursday July 21 2005 In the article below we made reference to a forthcoming book by Sir Christopher Meyer, the chairman of the Press Complaints Commission, saying that he had negotiated a newspaper serialisation deal. That is not the case. Sir Christopher has not negotiated any serialisation. Neither he nor his agent would be involved in any negotiations. If a newspaper was interested when the book was completed, the matter would be negotiated between the newspaper and the publisher. Sir Christopher has already said (Guardian, July 6) that he would denote any serialisation fee to charity.

Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, is blocking passages from a fly-on-the-wall account by Sir Jeremy Greenstock, Britain's former ambassador to the UN, on the run-up to the war in Iraq.

Downing Street disowned any involvement in the censoring of the book yesterday after reports in the Observer and the Mail on Sunday that Tony Blair had wanted to block publication.

No 10 put the responsibility on the Foreign Office and Whitehall procedures to vet civil servants' memoirs for the removal of parts of the book, The Cost of War.

Sir Jeremy, who was also Mr Blair's special envoy to Iraq for a year, has been known to be a critic of the politicians' handling of the war.

The Observer said yesterday that some of the removed passages were highly critical of the US.

In one, Sir Jeremy calls America's decision to go to war "politically illegitimate" and says that negotiations in the United Nations "never rose above the level of awkward diversion for the US administration".

The book is understood to reveal embarrassing conversations between him, Mr Blair and the foreign secretary during the UN negotiations.

The exchanges are said to show neither politician in a flattering light.

Sir Jeremy is also critical of the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and her role in the run-up to the crisis.

The book is highly critical of the running of Iraq in the aftermath of the war, of which he had first hand experience.

He is said to accuse the interim administration of throwing away opportunities. Plans were "dissipated in poor policy analysis and narrow- minded execution". The book would be a devastating critique of government policy - being published at a time when terrorist attacks in Iraq have reached a peak, despite assurances from government ministers that the country is still on course to becoming a democracy.

Yet the decision to demand changes is surprising given the number of critical books that have been published about the Iraq war, including an extremely critical account from Clare Short, the former international development secretary, who wasscathing about the role of some of her political colleagues.

A forthcoming book by Sir Christopher Meyer, the chairman of the Press Complaints Commission and British ambassador to Washington from 1997 to 2003, will reveal the inner workings of Britain's lobbying in the run-up to the war, but it does not appear to have been censored.

Like Sir Jeremy, he has negotiated a newspaper serialisation deal and his book is due out this autumn.

Reports that Downing Street was blocking another book by a former press officer, Lance Price, were also denied by Number 10 yesterday. A spokesman said he had never heard of the proposed book and knew nothing about any censorship.

Mr Price has left Downing Street and runs a guesthouse in the south of France.

In a statement on Sir Jeremy's book, the Foreign Office said: "Civil Service regulations which apply to all members of the diplomatic service require that any retired official must obtain clearances in respect of any publication relating to their service. Sir Jeremy Greenstock's proposed book is being dealt with this under this procedure."